SKKN MINIPROJECTS CAN HELP ENHANCE SOFT SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI
Đơn vị…………............................................……….
TRƯỜNG THPT TRẤN BIÊN
Mã số: ................................
(Do HĐKH Sở GD&ĐT ghi)

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

………………………………………………………………………
(Ghi đầy đủ tên gọi giải pháp SKKN)

MINI-PROJECTS CAN HELP ENHANCE SOFT SKILLS FOR
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Người thực hiện: …………………………........................
Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu:
Người
thựclýhiện:
- Quản
giáo CHU
dục THỊ KIM
 PHƯƠNG
Lĩnh
vực nghiên
- Phương
phápcứu:
dạy học bộ môn: ............................. 
(Ghi rõ tên bộ môn)
- Quản lý giáo dục

-- Lĩnh

vựcpháp
khác:dạy
.......................................................

Phương
học bộ môn: TIẾNG ANH

(Ghi rõ tên lĩnh vực)
(Ghi rõ tên bộ môn)

vựckhông
khác:thể
.......................................................

Có đính kèm: Các- Lĩnh
sản phẩm
hiện trong bản in SKKN
(Ghi
rõ
tên
lĩnh
vực)
 Mô hình
 Đĩa CD (DVD)
 Phim ảnh  Hiện vật khác
(các phim, ảnh, sản phẩm phần mềm)

Có đính kèm: Các sản phẩm không thể hiện trong bản in SKKN
 Mô hình
 ĐĩaNăm

CD (DVD)
 Phim ảnh  Hiện vật khác
học: ..............................
(các phim, ảnh, sản phẩm phần mềm)


SƠ LƯỢC LÝ LỊCH KHOA HỌC
––––––––––––––––––
I. THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ CÁ NHÂN
1. Họ và tên: CHU THỊ KIM PHƯƠNG
2. Ngày tháng năm sinh: 12/10/1976
3. Nam, nữ: Nữ
4. Địa chỉ: C12 Khu dân cư Tân Biên, P. Tân Biên, Biên Hòa, Đồng Nai
5. Điện thoại:

ĐTDĐ: 01289909075

6. Fax:

E-mail:

7. Chức vụ:
8. Nhiệm vụ được giao : Chủ nhiệm lớp 12A1, dạy tiếng Anh các lớp 12A1,
12D1(tiếng Anh hệ 10 năm), 10A3 (tiếng Anh hệ 7 năm)
9. Đơn vị công tác: THPT TRẤN BIÊN

II. TRÌNH ĐỘ ĐÀO TẠO
- Học vị (hoặc trình độ chuyên môn, nghiệp vụ) cao nhất: Thạc sĩ
- Năm nhận bằng: 2010
- Chuyên ngành đào tạo: TESOL

III. KINH NGHIỆM KHOA HỌC
- Lĩnh vực chuyên môn có kinh nghiệm: Giảng dạy tiếng Anh
Số năm có kinh nghiệm: 17
- Các sáng kiến kinh nghiệm đã có trong 5 năm gần đây: 0

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MINI-PROJECTS CAN HELP ENHANCE SOFT SKILLS FOR
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
Introduction
In the dawn of the industrialization era when the term “global worker” is
permanently mentioned, soft skills are always highly recommended for students to
be well-prepared at the threshold of the world of work. Therefore, before
graduation, it is vital that students should be given opportunities to set up and
improve soft skills.
Many course books or textbooks are primarily designed to mainly supply
knowledge , which is only a part of what is necessary to land dream job. As a
result, employment recruiters claim that skill gaps need to be more concerned
about or future employees would fail to get success in their target job.
Context
Since 2010, Vietnamese MOET has been making great effort to reorient and design
a new series of textbooks, from Tiếng Anh 3 toTiếng Anh 12(grade3-12) with a
view to promoting soft skills for students through carrying out mini projects.
The mini projects are aimed at supplying students with an opportunity to apply the
language and skills they have learnt throughout the unit to do a task in a real life
situation. As a result, the projects are practical and doable enough for all students
to do provided that collaboration among team members is highly emphasized.
Rationale
I have been teaching the new Tieng Anh series for three years and this school year

(2016-2017) is the first time I have taught Tieng Anh 12.
With the ambition to get students to be well prepared when they leave school, I do
this small action research to help them build up soft skills through mini projects.
Advantages and disadvantages
While using this kind of material I have come up with some benefits and
limitations that I would like to include here.
Advantages
- I am strongly supported by my school authorities and colleagues, especially
I am greatly assisted by my group leader, who gives me more control and
freedom in teaching and writing lesson plans.
- Our school has two added periods for English per week so that I can fill in
the gaps of the lessons for my students.
- Most of my students are in the same level.
- The books are eye-catching enough to draw students’ attention and the topics
are varied.
However, I also deal with some drawbacks.
Disadvantages
- As the series are not widely used in secondary schools, the related sources
for reference are not rich and available. As a result, it requires the teacher
more time and energy to fulfill the task designs.

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- Since my students do not major in English, some lessons are hard for them
to cover as fully expected. Additionally, as 12th grade students, they are
devoting more time to their other major subjects.
Procedures
The procedures can be divided into three stages.
Stage 1: At the beginning of the first semester, students were put in groups to

pick the projects in Tieng Anh 12 volume 1(see the Overview in the
appendixes) at random. Then they were demonstrated, described or
explained what they were going to do. After that, deadlines were set. They
were supposed to carry out in ten weeks.
Stage 2: Contacts between us were not only in class but Facebook
messenger, mobile texting or emails would also be used. Timelines were
required after the first week to make sure things went on as expected. I gave
students more guidance, support and advice to assist them out of the
problems or difficulties.
Stage 3:Presentations were done after ten weeks. Groups recorded their
performance and questions were encouraged to raise from the others.
Finally, constructive feedback was given.
Here is the table of the summary.
Stage 1: Pre-

Stage 2: While-

-

Stage 3: Post-

-

Introducing the aim
Grouping
Picking units
Stating requirements with
detailed explanations
Setting deadlines
Week 1: checking timelines and

help make some adjustments.
Week 3: asking students to
briefly report where they are,
what they did through a variety
of means of communication.
Week 7: reading the first
written draft and give feedback.
Week 8: reminding the deadline
and urging students to rehearse.
Week 11: Marking
presentations and giving
feedback.

Term definitions
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What are soft skills?
According to Wikipedia, soft skills are “a combination “of many skills such
as interpersonal people skills, social skills, communication skills, character
traits and attitudes.
Imman N. Khurshid also defined that soft skills are skills “ needed in
different aspects of life including your career.”
Collins Dictionary also refers soft skills as “interpersonal skills such as the
ability to communicate well with other people and to work in a team.”
Among the soft skills, communication skills are considered the most
important ones. Communication skills include Interview skills, Listening
skills, Conversational skills, Team-working skills, Decision-making,
Problem-solving, Negotiation, Presentation and Personal skills.
What is a project?

According to Cambridge Dictionary, a project is “a
piece of planned work or an activity that is finished over a
period of time and intended to achieve a particular purpose.”
The projects in Tieng Anh 12 ask students to do a survey or carry out
research to get information about their friends, their neighbourhood or to
broaden their knowledge about the real world.
Founded results and expectations
Findings
The final products, the written projects, were collected before students’
presentations. Although the aim was not to improve computer skill, it can be
concluded that some students are quite computer-literate(see in the Appendix
2 and their presentations in the VCD).
Through observation, interviews (enclosed in the DVD) videoed later on,
and small talks, it can be said that students’ soft skills have been established
and gradually improved.
Though recorded video clips cannot show satisfactory results as expected, I
believe that students have gained some life skills when they are to work in
teams to fulfill the required task.
To make it clearer, I would like to mention some examples as follows.
Decision-making and Listening skills were mainly practised when students
worked out the Timeline together. Team-working and Problem-solving skills
were gradually established throughout the process and Presentation skill was
built and developed at the final stage.
Expectations
As for teacher, I am still “new” to guiding and giving students feedback in
a more professional way to carry out mini projects successfully. It is hopeful
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that I will have more opportunities to share and learn from my colleagues

and be more trained in workshops or seminars about this issue.
As for students, they should be more aware of the importance of projects
because they not only practise the language but also develop soft skills,
which cannot be learned from books but only through practice. They should
take it particularly seriously like the way they spend time for their majors.

NGƯỜI THỰC HIỆN
(Ký tên và ghi rõ họ tên)

CHU THỊ KIM PHƯƠNG

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APPENDIXES

APPENDIX 1
AN OVERVIEW
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Grade
12

Speaking
Talking about a
historical figure

Writing
Writing a life

story

Discussing key
features of
urbanization and
expressing opinions
about a preferable
place of living
Discussing lifestyle
choices and deciding if
they are
environmentally
friendly

Describing a line
graph

Unit 4 THE MASS
MEDIA

Talking about social
networking

Describing a pie
chart

Unit 5 CULTURAL
IDENTITY

Talking about ways to

maintain cultural
identity

Writing an essay

Unit 1 LIFE
STORIES
Unit 2
URBANIZATION

Unit 3 THE
GREEN
MOVEMENT

Writing an essay
about advantages
and
disadvantages

Grammar
Past simple
Past continuous
Articles
Subjunctives

Project
Presentation: a
famous person
you admire
Finding out

how a city or a
country has
undergone
urbanization

Simple,
compound and
complex
sentences
WHICHconnector
Verbs + prep.
Past perfect/past
simple

Conducting a
survey on
students’ green
lifestyle

Present
perfect/Present
perfect
continuous
Repeated
comparatives

Conducting a
survey on
students’
favorite social

networking
sites and apps.
Presentation:
cultural identity
of an ethnic
group in
Vietnam

APPENDIX 2

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Reference
Cambridge Dictionary Online - />Collin Dictionary online- />
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Imran Newaz Khurshid-Why should Teachers have Soft Skills and what you can do about
it.- December 29, 2014- />PBLEducation -The Importance of Project Based Learning for Classrooms FEBRUARY 9, 2013 · 4:17 PM

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